1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telephone voice and data carrying devices, and more particularly to a flush-mounted voice and data application jack system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A need has existed for some time for a system or means by which installers and repair personnel are able to more easily and with less labor handle the installation and repair of telephone and data lines. This need further requires that any such system or means be reliable and efficient in use, and that it not carry with it a severe economic penalty to the user.
Conventional apparatus utilizes technology in which terminates electrical connections in screw-conductor terminations, with these connections at the rear of the wiring devices employed. This type of termination is inherently "uncertain" and often unreliable in the sense that one never is certain how tight the connections have been made, assuming that the installer (or repairperson) has remembered to fully tighten all started connections. With different installers, one realizes different connections in many cases.
Wiring of conventional apparatus most often requires the relatively time-consuming chore of stripping and bending of insulated conductors about each terminal screw after accessing the screws in the rear of the devices and, thereafter, hand-tightening down of the screws on the stripped wires. There is the ever present uncertainty with those connections in which screws are tightened down more firmly that overtightening will result in a severed conductor. It is known that insecure or unreliable terminations or electrical connections result in interference with quality voice communications such as, without limitation, noise, scratchiness and static on the line. In the case of data transmissions, such as between computers, noise on the line resulting from poor connections results in errors and less reliable data transfers, which attack the very heart and goals of reliable data transmissions.
Another drawback of conventional technology resides in the relatively large enclosures required for devices with relatively larger numbers of terminations, such as 16 terminations (conductors). These enclosures themselves include covers which require screw-type fasteners for access to the connections. With conventional technology, a repairperson must access the rear screw terminations for employing test equipment, this in many instances resulting in the disturbance of existing terminations due to what has conventionally required the removal and turning of wiring components.
As for the conventional technology in which insulation displacement clips and wiring tools are utilized, none are free from one or more of the aforesaid disadvantages or limitations, and none of the known existing devices exhibit the combination of elements taught by the present invention, whether taken singly or in any combination with one another.